1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with an image processing apparatus on a network, a communication method of enabling the information processing apparatus to communicate with the image processing apparatus on the network, and a program for executing the communication method.
2. Related Background Art
There is a technique that plural computers share, through a network, network devices such as a printer, a copying machine and the like respectively provided on the network. In this technique, for example, when a user intends to use the printer among the plural devices provided on the network, it is necessary for the user to make a search for the printer which has a desired function (e.g., a color print function, a double-sided print function, or the like). However, for example, in a case where a network system is large in scale and thus a number of printers are interconnected, it is difficult for the user oneself to previously gain an understanding of the functions, the locations and the like of all of these printers.
Consequentially, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-353140 discloses technique that a user designates desired printer attribute information (e.g., color print information, double-sided print information, or the like), the printer satisfying the designated printer attribute information is searched (or retrieved) from the network, and the searched printer is displayed, thereby eliminating a troublesome that the user oneself has to search a desired printer.
Besides, as technique for effectively using plural printers existing on the network, there is distribution printing that one print job is distributed to the plural printers existing on the network, and the distributed jobs are respectively output by these printers. Moreover, there is substitute printing that, in a case where printing became impossible due to some kind or another error occurred in the printer registered as an output destination, another printer on the network performs the printing in question as a substitute for the registered printer. In any case, a setting process for the printer intended to perform the distribution printing is necessary when the distribution printing is to be performed, and a setting process for the printer intended to perform the substitute printing is necessary when the substitute printing is to be performed.
Here, as a method of performing the setting process, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-319533 discloses a method that a virtual printer is beforehand created by selecting and grouping printers with characteristics that a user desires from among physical printers connected and usable on the network at that time, and, in case of performing printing, the created virtual printer is selected, and the physical printers included in the selected virtual printer are actually used so that output data is automatically distributed to the optimum printers with the characteristic that the user desires, thereby achieving distribution printing.
By using the above technique, the user can easily find out the printer with the desired function from among the plural printers connected on the network. At this time, when the plural results are retrieved, one of the retrieved results is selected and registered as the usable printer.
However, in the above print methods such as the distribution print method, the substitute print method and the like that the plural printers are used for printing, it is necessary beforehand to retrieve the plural printers connected on the network, find out the printer with the desired function, and register the found printer as the currently usable printer. Then, it is necessary to select the desired printer and again register it as a distribution-destination printer, a substitute-destination printer or the like. For this reason, it is necessary for the user to doubly perform the complicated processes such as the printer retrieval process and the printer registration process.